Furiel sat up straighter on the oak stool. She felt somewhat nervous already, even though no one else was in the ancient makeshift room where the tribes met in peace.
These tribes were the groups that made up the large land in which they lived. Furiel ruled over the tribe of foxes, near the center of the continent. Near her were the cats. She expected her friend and fellow leader, Bastet, would be here shortly.
Furiel was a beautiful vixen, with glossy orange fur and peaceful blue eyes which reminded all creatures why she was known as the fairest leader of them all. She had a thin garment around her that was sky blue and intricate. On her head rested a vine-like gold tiara with a single blue gem.
She exhaled deeply, starting to doubt anyone would show at all. She couldn't help but wonder what the point of this was. The other leaders were...not very cooperative. As Bastet always told her with a sharp grin, "the only way they'll take peace is through blood."
She once again straightened up, and she started to hear slight shuffling as the other leaders slowly gathered. As they joined her in the room, Furiel noted the friendly glances leaders gave to others, as well as some glares. Furiel gave a silent prayer to herself and then looked forward as everyone gathered together. After a good ten seconds of silence, the first to speak was Denka, the squirrels' toughly-composed leader.
"Furiel. I hope you've had a good month?" He asked, trying to sound casual while the other leaders were still giving looks to each other. Furiel then noticed Bastet had not joined them yet. Usually one of the first ones here, Bastet was the one who always was able to kick these meetings off. Furiel wondered if she could manage without the feline.
"It's been well," Furiel answered after a pause, "we've started growing more crops to help recover from the long winter we faced."
"Makes sense. We suffered it with you," Denka waited for a moment to see if anyone would join in. For his small size as a squirrel, his presence felt large. He was muscular, with a cloth draped across him for decor. He had dark eyes that seemed to dart around as he spoke, with his fluffed tail resting across his front paws.
"It was alright," a new voice spoke. Furiel looked over to Duskfangs. The tone of his voice told the vixen that drama was about to unfold. The huge German Shepherd wearing armor and a spiked helmet was one of the biggest, and possibly strongest, of the leaders. His tribe of canines were known for their mining capabilities, due to the large ore deposits in their land.
"There were worse things happening." He grumbled coldly, looking in the direction of a red panda.
"I'm sorry if anything has happened," the fox quickly intervened, in case the tension worsened, "but I guess this means you are now leader of the canines, Duskfangs?" The dog looked impressed, noting that Furiel knew him.
"Yes," Duskfangs said, looking away "Cobalt has passed."
"I'm sorry," Furiel started to look the other way as well, blinking, "he was a good and young leader. It's a shame he had to go so soon..."
"Aluztuc?" Raloin questioned, noticing the earlier look at the red panda, who remained quiet, "I expected him all bark and no bite." The other leaders slowly nodded in agreement, knowing the red panda to be quite aggressive in his speech. It was an amazement to them that he still hadn't spoken a word.
"Aluztuc." Duskfangs said flatly to the mouse. Raloin too wore armor, but also had a cloak draping from the shoulder-piece. Despite his people's small size, they were respected for their combination of quickness and strength. The small mouse looked up at the dog, curious but respectively keeping quiet.
"Haha!" A pale-furred, ragged raccoon with a gold earring chirped, "I thought something had happened! Not every day you watch a group of dogs retreat back to their land with their tails tucked between their legs!" The large dog slowly turned to the raccoon, baring his teeth.
"I wouldn't talk right now, you pathetic little wench." He growled, "Roofian." Roofian snickered, not intimidated.
"While you two were so busy, it was too easy to go along and hit me and me pals up some easy cash!" Roofian bellowed.
"You ignorant fool and your thieves," Kataar, a small, scrawny badger spoke up, sniveling.
"Yah, and what right do you have saying dat?" Roofian looked over, then scratched his chin mockingly "now, sorry, which one is you? The leader, or the fake one? Oh, or is it the third or fourth fake one? Oh, I know, you all are the wimpy ones!" Kataar bristled.
"My tribe is a council!" He growled "we do not have one leader. This way we keep our tribe from being under the oppression of one idiotic fool."
"Maybe you all should pick better leaders." A smug but utterly cheerful voice called out. On que, all the leaders shrank down a bit, and let out a silent sigh, for Tuttle-The-Perfect-Turtle was among them. Even Furiel couldn't understand this one. This dark-colored turtle always wore a smile, and had eyes so small they looked like two dots of ink.
"Since I've been here, and gosh, who knows how long that's been, my land has been thriving," he chirped, "there's been food for everyone, and everyone's just been so happy! Honestly, I can't even begin to understand how you all have been struggling so badly."
"You and your perfect little utopia," Grumbled Stone, an old brown hare with beady eyes "you think you have peace in your land?"
"Why, of course! I'm having nothing but peace," Tuttle exclaimed. Stone loomed forward, pressing his front paws on the long, rough wooden table.
"Wrong!" He shouted, ears back "there is no such thing as peace. We all want power. Even Furiel." He turned to the vixen who had been quiet, along with most of the leaders.
"I assure you, Stone. I-" Furiel started to defend herself, tail flicking shyly.
"You be quiet!" He growled, and leapt at the fox, until he was directly on the table, in front of her, "you're worse than Tuttle, you know. So naive. You think there's gonna be peace with us tribes. That's never gonna happen." Two birds shuffled awkwardly back as he spoke.
"Stone, I'm sorry-" the fox tried to speak again, growing nervous. One of her paws started to lightly drum on the chair, anxiety growing.
"I said be quiet!" He hollered "you want power just as much as any other creature here! To feel the blood-"
"Get away from her, you wrinkled prune of an animal!" Hissed a voice, and Stone looked up to see the towering figure of Bastet, the Clouded Leopard. Instantly he shrank down, and cowered back to his seat. Bastet smirked, and sat next to Furiel. She was huge, larger than Duskfangs even. She had a golden pelt with the splotches of a Clouded Leopard, and green eyes that almost glowed. She had the godmark, a sign given to all the cat leaders; a red mark on the forehead. No one knew or questioned her origins; there has always been a Clouded Leopard ruling over the tribe of normal cats.
"That's right. Everyone stop bickering and focus on the true meaning of these," Bastet looked around, "now how about some of you quiet people speak up now."
"Hmph. Where have you been all this time, Bastet?" Slak-ni, a long green serpent with intricate symbols on her scales and long silver fangs hissed.
"Had to deal with some things," Bastet shrugged.
"Can we start this over?" A low voice of an owl hooed. Everyone turned respectively to Taal, a Snowy Owl who wore a short blue cloak. He had large clear eyes that seemed to have infinite wisdom.
"Taal and I have decided to team up our tribes even further," Muunk, a small striped red bird chirped "this way we can work on preparing for more occurrences. The winds have been growing in speed, so we need to be ready for anything." The owl nodded in approval.
"I'm glad to hear it," Furiel smiled lightly "I hope your tribes can work well together."
"How has fishing been, Dundaat?" Bastet tried to stir more conversation, and looked at an otter who donned tiled teal armor on her back.
"Great, Bastet." She chirped, bowing a bit "the river is starting to flow more out of the lake, and we believe there is more water heading your way."
"That's always good news." Bastet purred, usually showing no signs of weakness, but allowing it for the sake of conversation. Bastet knew to look over Furiel, and didn't want the crazy last meeting to repeat.
"Bastet!" A lemur called out "is it true you fought off a whole legion of raccoons that threatened you?" Roofian started to chuckle awkwardly, and Bastet sighed.
"Yea, whatever, Sakura," Bastet spat, "in the end we formed an alliance, in order to save his skin."
"Hey! You'll have access to all our gold!" Roofian cried.
"That you stole from us!" Barked Duskfangs.
"You callin' us thieves?!" Roofian's tail started to puff up in anger.
"Well, I mean, you are." Raloin squeaked "no offense..."
"I think the offense was implied." Artok, the stoic leader of the penguins that lived on the far edge of the land chuckled slightly.
"Hey! Stop!" Roofian started to wail like a small child. The quiet red panda started seething.
"Enough of this petty squabble!" He lashed out "are we not to focus on what's really happening?! I have been framed by that coward!"
"There it is." Mumbled Bastet, hearing the lashing tongue of Aluztuc, the red panda. The panda was small, composed of short but stocky limbs and a fluffed up tail, and bright narrow eyes and jewelry. Cloths in bright patterns were tied around him.
"Duskfangs, how dare you wrongfully accuse me and my tribe of killing Cobalt!" Aluztuc hissed.
"I saw you!" Duskfangs howled, leaning forward "you ripped his bloody head right off!"
"I did not! Just-"
"Just what?! Just what, huh?!"
"Only a slash to the throat to teach him a good lesson!"
"You murderer!" Duskfangs leapt at the red panda, who screeched, and threw himself at the canine.
Furiel stood up crying out, "stop! You all are better than this!" Bastet walked up, and pushed herself in between them, using her strength to get the two away from each other. Aluztuc flopped onto the ground, and Duskfangs snarled from behind Bastet.
"You see?" Stone looked pleased, "blood. Power. Strength. You can't help it Furiel. One day, it'll be this."
"I'll be ready when that happens, Stone." Slak-ni nodded in approval, baring her fangs. Bastet turned her head, an unreadable expression on her face.
"Great. Then I can have my sweet revenge on this killer." Duskfangs looked at Aluztuc, who glared back.
"Stop this!" Denka called out "you are all insane!" Thunder boomed from the outside. They all turned to the direction of the sound.
"We better get going." Taal said "that wasn't too close, but we should all hurry back so we can avoid it." Furiel nodded, and at once all the leaders started to walk out as they came. Furiel remained, watching them go. A fear came over her, but before she was filled with dread Bastet read her expression.
"I'll make sure they don't kill each other," Bastet rubbed against Furiel as she walked by "I promise, 'love." Furiel nodded slightly.
"Say hello to Egret for me," Furiel spoke of a cat in Bastet's tribe, which Bastet trained to be second in command.
"Of course," Bastet purred, and walked off. Furiel waited until everyone had cleared, then closed her eyes, exhaling heavily once more.
Whatever be watching over us, please help us. Please spare us from this bloodlust. I will do anything to stop it, may it cost me my life. But please, spare Bastet. Spare the young. Spare the true and the loyal.
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